


Counting Stars

by servantofclio



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-24 05:24:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6142891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/servantofclio/pseuds/servantofclio
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had been a long journey home to Rannoch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Counting Stars

It had been a long journey home.

The mass relays might be nonfunctional, after the war, but the Migrant Fleet was accustomed to long voyages through space. They, of all people, were equipped for it, and so they had gone, taking the pathways through the stars. More than a year after the war had ended, Tali was able to set her feet on the rock of the homeworld again.

There was so much to do, so many things to build, so many ships to decommission, so many people to settle. So many adjustments to make. Learning to tell time by planet-time instead of ship-time. Taking off her suit for limited amounts of time each day, so she could adapt to the environment of Rannoch. She’d learned to relish that time, breathing unfiltered air, smelling the scents of Rannoch’s soil and plants, things whose names she’d only learned by rote in her childhood schooling. Tali liked to go and watch the children playing every day, too. The fleet had started to loosen population restrictions on the voyage home, and since they had started to live planetside, there was no more reason for them. They had a whole planet to populate, after all. They were limited, of course, by the health and willingness of the adult population, but still the numbers of children grew week by week, and these children would grow up acclimated to Rannoch. Visiting the creches and playgrounds reminded Tali of the future they were building toward. These children would not need to wear suits on their own homeworld; they would not need to be sent away for Pilgrimage, judged and marked by what contributions they brought back with them. There was so much debate, even now, about continuing the custom—somewhat of a moot point until the reconstruction of the relay network made travel faster.

Tali was so busy that it took months before she could start construction on her own house, especially since she planned to do the work herself. She’d drawn up all the plans and commissioned the materials. She took to going out to the site after a day of meetings, muttering her frustrations with the bickering of the other admirals while she moved slabs of plascrete and laid in the wiring.

At night, she liked to climb out on the roof and take her mask off, getting used to the feel of the cool night air against her skin. The skies were so clear, so free of pollutants, that she could take in a field of stars, thousands of them. In ancient times, quarians had found patterns in the stars, turning them into constellations. Most sentient species did as much. Tali’s omni-tool would show her the old Khelish names of the stars and constellations, if she liked.

But she had traveled too long among the stars, and knew too many people and planets and stations. Instead, Tali liked to turn off her omni-tool and the rest of the tech she carried, stretch herself out on the roof and breathe, and count the stars. One for Shepard, and one for Garrus, those two for Kaidan and Ashley, that big reddish one for Wrex, that pale one for Liara… she counted and named, turning over the faces of her friends in her mind.

Most nights, she fell asleep long before she could count all the stars, and woke up to the soft beeping of her suit’s monitors telling her to put her mask back on. Only then would she climb down, muscles aching, and prepare to rest properly and start the next day all over again.

**Author's Note:**

> A fic I wrote a while ago and am now cross-posting from tumblr.


End file.
